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Description:c1950s.
View showing Ring Road Beeston by the junction with Elland Road. On the left is Crow Nest House, part of the Crow Nest Works, formerly the sausage skin factory of Kraft & Hornings but around the time of the photo it had been used by a transport firm. The photograph, taken around the late 1950s, shows the building in poor condition, with the ground floor windows boarded up and broken panes at the upper storey level. A Ford Anglia car can be seen.

User Comments:

Name:

Brian Horsley

Comment:

Looking at this photo I would guess the date nearer 1960 , the car looks like a Ford Anglia the building on the left with broken windows was Hanson Haulage offices the big warehouse was their loading bay and the 2 storey building in the distance looks like the Drysalters pub which was built in Hansons yard and replaced the Old Drysalters which was just outside this picture to the left and at the end of Crow Nest Lane before it was realigned . Not sure about the sausage skin makers E&CC Co casing manufacturers was next to where The Readymix plant is now and halfway up Crow Nest Lane was a factory which could have been sausage skin makers . On Millshaw was Longthorne Bros sausage skin makers ? and next door Craven & Tattersalls ? who made cooking fat for fish shops and also processed cows feet and other non edible pieces of cows into something Glue ?
Oct 7th 2009

The old 'DRYSALTERS' pub is right there behind the hedge where the Ford is passing. It was used as Offices for Hanson Haulage for a few years before redevolopment. Opposite here was a the 'Bottom field' adjacent to Cottingley cemetary, recreationally used by the kids from the adjoining Prefab estate. This was also the home pitch for Holbeck WMC who produced many fine sides and Individual players. Late Fifties would be a correct date for this pic.

I think that Brian Horsley is nearer the mark with his dating. The old 'DRYSALTERS' ARMS' was still standing in 1956/57. As the description says, this picture shows the point where Elland Road met and changed its name to Ring Road Beeston for several hundred yards, until it found itself again at the bottom of Churwell. The Anglia seen here, is leaving the Ring Road and heading north, up Elland Road, towards town. Only a few seconds after this photograph was taken the car would have passed the bottom of Crow Nest Lane, which would have been visible on the driver's right. As far as I can recall, there was, as Brian says, an Offal Processors approximately halfway down Crow Nest Lane on the right hand side. However, the one mentioned in the description was at the very bottom of the lane. It is worth noting that in those days the lane did not run in a straight line from the railway bridge as it does today. As you neared the bottom, the factory gates loomed directly in front of you, and immediately after you had crossed the bridge over Shaw Beck, the road took a 90 degree turn to the right, and
followed the factory wall for just about 50 yards, and then swung sharp left passing a row of houses, on the left, for another 50 yards to meet Elland Road. Nowadays, the bottom of Crow Nest Lane terminates at the Ring Road. Regarding the site of the old DRYSALTERS' ARMS:- I think that Brian Horsley is correct when he puts the pub. somewhere between the bottom of Crow Nest Lane and the left hand edge of this picture. I can't remember the pub. being behind a hedgerow. My memory seems to be telling me that the pavement ran directly in front of it. Can anyone confirm this?

As earlier posted, the building with the two chimneys WAS the former 'Drysalters Arms' before the new one was opened.
No wonder Mr Schofield thinks It was close to the original site! I think the offal processors on Crow nest lane was the Leeds Casing Co. close to this was a pork dripping factory (Websters).

With reference to 'THE DRYSALTERS'. I have it on good authority, that the pub. was beyond the left hand edge of this picture. When you reached the bottom of Crow Nest Lane, and turned left, the pub was just a few yards along, and the door was straight off the pavement. Can anyone else confirm this?

I agree with the comments from Brian Horsley and Brian Laycock about the 'Drysalters' and the 'Sausage Factory', and also Graham's comments as to the entrance of the said pub. which was straight onto the pavement on Elland Road, just a few yards along after turning the corner at the bottom of Crow Nest Lane. (April 21/2010)

For many years there were several piles of black ash which had been tipped on the land to the left of this junction,and they were equally spaced out but of various heights. In the 1930s and 40s and 50s this was known as Beeston Bumps and was popular with all age groups of cycle owners who travelled from miles around to ride over these mounds. The paths between were worn smooth and it was great fun traversing up and over them. There was an agreed clockwise direction of travel and I cannot rememmber any injuries. Sometimes ice cream vans attended.Am I the only person to remember BEESTON BUMPS.? This valuable free facility was lost forever when the present major juction was created. Lovely memories of a gentle time before the car dominated our lives.

With regard to Brian Thomas's comment. The 'Old ~Memory' is playing tricks Brian. The Drysalters' was never behind a hedge-row. The derelict building shown here, is, or was what had been, 'Crow Nest House'. According to the scale on the 1905 O.S. Map, the distance from the centre of this building, ( ie:- the white pole ), to the bottom of Crow Nest Lane to the left, was approximately 85 yards. That's a fair length, which gave ample room to fit in the end of the short row of houses at the bottom of Crow Nest Lane as well as the 'Drysalters'. I think that the confusion generated here, lies in the fact that it is easy to forget that Crow Nest Lane did not terminate on The Ring Road as it does today, but on Elland Road, off camera here to the left, approximately 255 feet from Crow Nest House. Surely there must have been photographs of the participants of pub. trips and outings etc. taken outside the building. Are there any still in existence?

Thanks ROYBOY,for your welcome comment re beeston bumps. I was wondering if I was the only person still alive who remembers this lovely free facility. We always thought it was the work of some pre war FLY TIPPER!

The building behind the hedge is definitely NOT the old Drysalters' which was a very old, low building with a door straight onto the pavement and wooden benches outside. The style of the building was something like the Jacob's Well pub. I remember, in the 1950s, occasionally sitting outside the Drysalters' with my parents on summer evenings on the way back to Cottingley from visiting my grandparents on the Cardinal estate. The house behind the hedge was offices.

I’m inclined to agree with the Horsley, Laycock Went faction with regards to the location of the old Drysalters. I’ve had more than one bag of crisps and glass of lemonade sat on a bench outside the old Drysalters while Dad was inside partaking of more exotic substances. But he did come out now and then and slosh a bit of beer in our lemonade to make a shandy.
Originally the old pub was a “Melbourne Ales” House an exceptional drop of beer, according those in the know, including dad.
As I recall there was nothing in front of the building apart from the pavement and some benches.
When the place was derelict around about 1961/2/3 me and a couple of mates (Steve Gudgeon and Alex MacDonald) used to explore the pub by climbing into the cellar through the delivery hatches in the pavement so it definitely faced directly onto the road.
The buildings in the picture were between the old Drysalters and the new Drysalters which opened round about the same time and can be seen to the right.

I worked in the Accounts Office for Hanson Haulage when the offices were in this house. I loved it! The switchboard was situated in one of the bay windows and the operator was a glamorous hairdressers model named Maureen. Whenever Jimmy Hanson came up from London he'd mount the front steps singing "It's only a bird in a gilded cage..." embarrassing Maureen dreadfully. How innocent we were in those days.

You are right Graham The Drysalters was to the left hand side of the picture with the pavement in front of it. It was a white building and the landlord in the 1950s/1960s was Herbert Fox who was German and I believe changed his name from Herman Foch. He was a friend of my parents Arthur and Eileen Moss who ran The Punchbowl. Mrs Fox used to let lady customers use her own private sitting room. They later bought a bungalow in the Tudors at the top of Millshaw.

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